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Newswire : Slingshot to Saturn

The controversial Cassini mission to Saturn is finally on its way. The Titan rocket carrying the &dollar;3-billion spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 15 October. The NASA spacecraft will ricochet around the Solar System like a billiard ball, receiving a boost from Venus’s gravitational field, and then Earth’s and Jupiter’s, before being catapulted towards Saturn, arriving in 2004.

The launch was delayed for two days because of a computer malfunction and high winds. Environmentalists had protested about the 32 kilograms of plutonium fuel carried by Cassini, fearing irradiation of the surrounding area if there were an accident.